How the stories from The SAND Room began…

We all want to see God, don’t we? It would make it so much easier to believe that God really exists if we could actually see Him…and yet, when He does show up in our day-to-day experiences, do we notice Him? Do we acknowledge Him? Do we thank Him? Or do we just chalk these extraordinary events up to luck? Coincidence? Or our stars aligning just right on that day?

If you have found your way here, perhaps you have been a part of a long journey with me and my writings, one that started in the darkest days any parent could have, the death of a precious child. If you’ve read along with me through the years, hopefully you saw a transformation of my heart. God took my shattered heart, and He carefully and painstakingly put it back together again. It wasn’t an easy job—only a Mighty God could accomplish such a feat!

Through the years, I wrote, and I wrote, and I wrote, until I thought maybe my “writer” had worn out, and so I stopped. I thought maybe it was time. Eleven years, and possibly a million or more words later, was there anything left to say? We had moved out of our RV after ten years and put down roots as God provided a place for family gatherings now that we have six grandchildren. We are both working, and I have started drawing again, a pastime that used to fill many enjoyable hours in my days. And yet, writing still lingered there in the background of my mind…maybe I should just be making notes to pass on to my grandchildren if nothing else? I see God everywhere, every day. Shouldn’t it be noted somewhere? I thought of how Moses kept reminding God’s people in Deuteronomy to not forget all that God had done for them as they wandered through the wilderness for the past 40 years. We don’t want to forget those things!

While still pondering all this for several months, a wonderful lady visited our town. She is the aunt of one of my very special friends. Let’s call her, Connie, since that is her name! Connie is a woman I had never met, but someone who has read a great deal of my writings. She urged me to continue writing. I was still wavering. She strongly urged me to continue writing, but I still wasn’t fully convinced. I still thought maybe that season had passed. She even more strongly urged me to write!!…and then came the day of, “The Boy and the Snake.” It seemed Connie’s prompting had turned into God’s prompting in the very same week—and so begins a new chapter of life, with a new chapter of writings.

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Connie helped me see that maybe a new format might be called for. Again, I pondered that. What is it God might be asking me to do here? I wasn’t really sure, but it seemed today that I needed to “take a few steps into the river” before God was going to do something with what was flowing, as is written about in Joshua 3:8. Then, and only then, would He show the way. So, I picked up my laptop and began, and this is my very first foot in the river of writing again that you see in front of you. I’m taking that first step of faith and waiting with you to see what God has planned. I don’t really know…

God is very active in our lives, if we will be available to see Him. I just picked up Ann Voskamp’s book I have sitting here. Ann writes in her book, One Thousand Gifts, “Thanksgiving Always Precedes the Miracle.” In her writing, she is making a list of all the things in her day she can give thanks for. One day, it is simply the soap bubbles and their glimmer. She writes, “I only notice because I’m looking for this…” And there it is!! God just met me in the river of writing! God let me know we have to be looking for Him to see Him in our every day, otherwise we can miss the very subtle ways that He loves on us.

Since these writings now come to you from the room in our home I call the Sand Room, because of its color and the décor, I thought maybe it would be part of the title of this new season of writings. I didn’t know how, or what SAND would mean, and God just gave it to me through opening Ann’s book. We have to be: Searching And Noticing the Divine. God is already meeting me here in the river! “But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, the water began piling up…” Joshua 3:15,16. Thank you Lord Almighty!! You are awesome!!

On this day, as Paul Harvey would say, I will leave you with the “rest of the story” about The Boy and the Snake, since it is my jumping off point in sharing how God shows up in our every day, as He’s just shown up in mine!! God is so good and so fun!! I will continue to write and share how God shows up every day in so many amazing ways!! Let’s cross on over to the other side, and begin…